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ae86andkp61 (Forum Supporter)
ae86andkp61 (Forum Supporter) SuperDork
2/23/24 12:34 a.m.

First moto commute since being hit. Rode the 701 to work, rode out to lunch, rode back to work, rode to the shop to help my shopmate Oldeskewltoy, rode home. Man, I love this bike more than ever!! It only took me 15-20 minutes to get right back into it, and made me hyper-aware how awesome the bike is for my style of riding. It felt great to be back, enjoying the pre-spring sunny day, ready to put the accident and the mangled wrist behind me! Head on a swivel as much as ever, if not even more! I can tell it will be a while yet until I have the strength/endurance for a long ride...the further I get on the downhill side of 40, it sure doesn't come back as quickly as it used to, but certainly could be worse. 🫤 I'm still breathing, still wrenching, still riding, so life is good. 😁

ae86andkp61 (Forum Supporter)
ae86andkp61 (Forum Supporter) SuperDork
2/27/24 12:54 a.m.

I've been cranking on the Husaberg lately as I have time after work or on the weekends. I love the tiniest and most fiddly details, so perfect crimps on nearly microscopic connectors brings me immense joy! 😁

Lots of wiring work. So tedious, yet so gratifying in the end.

I added switched power to the rear lighting harness for the programmable LED turn signals. Installing the fender extender is a bit of a chicken-and-egg situation with routing the wiring and bolting everything together.


 

Unfortunately, the rearmost attachment points in my newly-purchased grey rear subframe are stripped out such that the stock fasteners that come up from the bottom and are supposed to thread into the plastic won't even remotely hold! 😩 

Thanfully, an M5 caphead dropped in from above is a nearly perfect fit. Adds a lot of extra steps to disassembly, but also prevents throwing yet another multi-hundred dollar imported used part into the trash because some knuckle-dragging mouth-breather berkeleyed it up previously. 

Now we're getting somewhere!

Professor_Brap (Forum Supporter)
Professor_Brap (Forum Supporter) UberDork
2/27/24 2:46 p.m.

That thing is close, I'm so excited to see it back to better than new condition. 

mfennell
mfennell HalfDork
2/27/24 4:12 p.m.
ae86andkp61 (Forum Supporter) said:

I've been cranking on the Husaberg lately as I have time after work or on the weekends. I love the tiniest and most fiddly details, so perfect crimps on nearly microscopic connectors brings me immense joy! 😁

Hah.  I've learned that lesson as well.  I recently installed a Zeeltronic programmable ignition/powervalve controller on my Aprilia RS250, requiring about 15 wires to be pinned and installed in supplied 3D-printed connectors.  The 'click' when that little pin gets home is particularly satisfying.  

 

ae86andkp61 (Forum Supporter)
ae86andkp61 (Forum Supporter) SuperDork
2/28/24 10:50 p.m.

In reply to Professor_Brap (Forum Supporter) :

So am I! Just wait until I get the wrap/graphics going! It will be on the more restrained side compared to your DRZ, but I'm still super-excited to see how it comes out. Think simple retro theme applied to a more modern bike.

ae86andkp61 (Forum Supporter)
ae86andkp61 (Forum Supporter) SuperDork
2/28/24 10:58 p.m.
mfennell said:
The 'click' when that little pin gets home is particularly satisfying.  

Indeed! The RS250 is a super-cool bike; love it! 

ae86andkp61 (Forum Supporter)
ae86andkp61 (Forum Supporter) SuperDork
2/28/24 11:20 p.m.

More wiring/lighting progress! The rear fender extension is tapered towards the rear, as one might expect on a dirt bike. With holes simply drilled in it to mount rear turn signals on the enduro/supermoto models, both lights are 'cross eyed' and angled inward a little bit due to the taper. Not the worst offense, but funny-looking and not ideal for visibility.

What one would need to remedy the situation is a a tapered spacer. To get some dimensions, I offered up the aftermarket rear turn signals I plan to install, held them flush, and then slowly moved them until they were pointed squarely rearward. Then I took my micrometer and measured the widest gap between turn signal and mounting surface, ensuring the area of the smallest gap was still touching the mounting surface. The taper is in two different planes, but thinking too hard on it unnecessarily complicates things. The only thing that matters is the biggest gap, which is easy to ascertain with a set of calipers. Imagine in the photo below that the turn signal is leveled out, squared-up in all axes, and then measure the gap.

ae86andkp61 (Forum Supporter)
ae86andkp61 (Forum Supporter) SuperDork
2/28/24 11:41 p.m.

Once I had some dimensions I chucked up some minimally-compressible black plastic stock into the lathe. Turned down the OD, drilled the center, and then since I'm planning to make two bookend pieces from one blank, I drilled a recess for the nut in both ends. I wrapped it in painter's tape, traced the centerline around the cylinder, and marked 90-degree quarters. This gave me the perfect setup to take the micrometer measurement from before, mark it twice off the centerline, 180 degrees out and in opposite directions, then mark the crossover of the centerline in the two remaining 90 degree marks, and connect the dots to give me a nice cutting guide.
 

ae86andkp61 (Forum Supporter)
ae86andkp61 (Forum Supporter) SuperDork
2/28/24 11:45 p.m.

Here's the result, ready to cut, giving me two mirrored spacers.


 

Et viola!

ae86andkp61 (Forum Supporter)
ae86andkp61 (Forum Supporter) SuperDork
2/29/24 12:06 a.m.

Here's the spacer on the left side, and no spacer on the right side. Subtle difference, and more noticeable in person. Ignoring the alignment would drive me nuts.

Both squared-up looks so much better and also will help with visibility. With these as bright LED running lights plus  turn signals, hopefully they might help to keep from getting run over by another jackhole who thinks whatever "OMG!" text they got on their phone requires immediate attention and is more important than traffic signals and laws, plus my well being. 
 

As an aside, please put your phone someplace inaccessible while you drive, or switch it off while driving. Nobody else's life is more important than whatever trivial bullE36 M3 is on your phone! My continued existence and my mangled wrist thank you! 😊

Rodan
Rodan UltraDork
2/29/24 7:46 a.m.

I have been watching your thread for a while, and congrats on getting back on the bike, and best wishes for a continued recovery.  yes

In 2021, I sold my bike because I was tired of the inattentive and homicidal drivers.  40 years of riding, but I wasn't ready to die...  It wasn't so much the idiocy as much as the attitude.  If I honked at a driver after having to do an emergency evasive when they violated my right of way, it never failed that they flipped me the bird, like I was the shiny happy person...

Anyway, we retired and moved to a less congested area, and I just got back on two wheels, on a VFR800 VTEC.

Keep up the good work and ride safe!

ae86andkp61 (Forum Supporter)
ae86andkp61 (Forum Supporter) SuperDork
3/2/24 9:21 p.m.

In reply to Rodan :

Thanks, and welcome back to riding! The later RC46 VFR800s are awesome all-around bikes. I love my 2006 VTEC. The sound of the V-4 is amazing, and compels one to wind it out in-gear when accelerating, and/or blip it on the downshifts for fun. Enjoy, and I hope you get some good rides in this season!

ae86andkp61 (Forum Supporter)
ae86andkp61 (Forum Supporter) SuperDork
3/2/24 9:32 p.m.

The to-do list on the Husaberg gets shorter as I keep ticking off small tasks.

Recent accomplishments include wiring in a new headlight connector to replace the ugly insulated butt connectors from some previous owner's poor hardwiring of the headlight. It is the relatively big square white/natural connector hanging down, just right of center in the photo above. I also added a small two-pin connector on the power side (tiny white connector pointed up) for the front turn signal running light adapter I will be adding soon.

I also replaced the ignition map switch connector wiring, it is the large-ish square white/natural connector hanging down on the right side right in front of the fork leg in the photo above.

I also washed, dried, and oiled the air filter.

Yup, it works! The Cyclops LED is a quite a bit brighter than the pathetic stock excuse for an incandescent bulb.

Check the roll-up door to the right of the 122...this is high beam from a distance of around 50 feet, and I think that will do.

ae86andkp61 (Forum Supporter)
ae86andkp61 (Forum Supporter) SuperDork
3/3/24 9:09 p.m.

Testing a running light adapter on the front turn signals for even more visibility to other traffic. I like using alligator clips and or wire nuts just for testing. Once I've confirmed that everything is functioning correctly and I have it all connected properly, I can move on to properly wiring it in. In this case it worked perfectly in the test.

Once I confirmed function, I temporarily ziptied the unit in place where I intend to mount it, and one by one routed the wires, overlapping each connecting pair in turn, and then cutting through both wires at once while holding them in the correct routing, resulting in the perfect length. This adapter goes in between the the turn signal switch/relay and the turn signals themselves. I debated hardwiring it in (more compact/less serviceable) and ended up electing to add factory style connectors. This will make it easy to remove/undo in the future...as easy as unplugging it, and reconnecting things directly, and also easy to replace should it ever fail (highly unlikely, but...)

Here's the running light adapter roughly in place (not yet mounted) just below the top triple clamp on the right side of the photo. I cut the leads to the turn signals roughly to length...you can see them dangling. The turn signals still need a final exact trim to length and connector installed, and I'll be done with wiring for the lights.

I gave up on the factory stop/start switch I ordered from AOMC at the beginning of December which has had an order status of "picking" for the past ten weeks, and just ordered from another vendor. That will allow me to remove a big chunk of dodgy aftermarket parts with modified wiring by unplugging it and plugging in the proper switch.

After replacing the stop/start switch, the last wiring-related tasks will be A) location and mounting for the ignition cylinder, and B) troubleshooting the intermittent starting issue if it isn't fixed by the switch.

Key cylinder idea number one. Unfortunately this is right in the way of the tabs for mounting the front mask plastics.

Key cylinder idea number two. So why can't I mount it like before? In theory I could, but I changed up the front headlight and plastics, and the old mounting location is so low and far outboard that the cylinder and wiring would be hanging out visible and begging to be hotwired. Originally it sat midway between the top and bottom triple clamps slightly outboard of the fork tube.

Yes, a bit of plastic won't do much to dissuade a determined thief, but I don't want to also attract the attention of the lazy opportunistic thief. I have additional measures in place to protect against both (which I'm not divulging on a public Internet forum) but if I can save the hassle of some methhead from hacking at my wiring and causing damage before giving up, I will do so.

ae86andkp61 (Forum Supporter)
ae86andkp61 (Forum Supporter) SuperDork
3/3/24 9:51 p.m.

About that starting issue. Hit the starter button, it goes "Rrr" for a quarter second, then stops turning over. Occasionally it cranks/starts, but I'm doing nothing different. No idea why. Then back to Rr..stop. Same results with multiple batteries, including a big huge car-sized fresh one. Voltage drops to 9.5-10V and stays low as long as you hold the button, but it isn't turning over. Once the start button is released, voltage jumps back up to 13.something. Starter solenoid clicks each time. Connections are tight. No blown fuses. 🤷

Loose contact inside the starter? Intermittently-sticking auto-decompression? Mechanical problem with the Bendix or sprag clutch causing it to jam?

I checked all the fuses and related wiring for connectivity and didn't turn up any red flags. 

I haven't tried powering the starter directly (and not sure I can in situ) but intend to try and see what happens. It looks like pulling the starter involves removing oil pipes plumbed to the head, so not super-easy.

I'm certainly curious to see if I new non-dodgy starter button changes anything.

Any troubleshooting thoughts or questions welcome!

mfennell
mfennell HalfDork
3/4/24 1:58 p.m.
ae86andkp61 (Forum Supporter) said:
mfennell said:
The 'click' when that little pin gets home is particularly satisfying.  

Indeed! The RS250 is a super-cool bike; love it! 

It's at Speedwerks in Delaware right now.  Just finished tuning.  I don't have the final numbers but I was told 'it's real strong, getting close to 70 at the wheel'.  I would have been happy at 65!  Stock, they come in around 55-57.

ae86andkp61 (Forum Supporter)
ae86andkp61 (Forum Supporter) SuperDork
3/11/24 12:51 a.m.

In reply to mfennell :

Awesome; that bike should be even more of a riot once tuned!

ae86andkp61 (Forum Supporter)
ae86andkp61 (Forum Supporter) SuperDork
3/11/24 1:15 a.m.


I did some further diagnostics on the starter. I tested all the fuses, and found no faults. I checked connectivity on the starter circuit; nothing suspicious. I finally got a factory start/stop switch, substituted it for the jacked-up aftermarket one with wire splices and broken insulation, no change, so it wasn't the funky switch.

To eliminate all the relays, solenoids, etc in between the battery and the starter, I tried powering it directly; no change...still the same symptoms.

Im leaning towards a bad auto-decompression unit on the camshaft.
It makes sense to me that the starter might be straining against 12.2:1 with all the valves closed, and it won't move much before stalling. After 12-15 little bumps from the starter, it eventually ends up inching past the compression stroke, and can turn more freely to get a run at it for the next successful start.


 

I pulled the skidplate again, and removed the external oil line to the head that hugs the starter.

Old starter pulled. Note the seal out of place. I ordered a cheap aftermarket new one as a diagnostic tool. If it works, I'll get an OEM starter or rebuild the original.

Installing the new start/stop switch revealed another problem; broken throttle cables!

New switch installed. Normally the cables are routed above the handlebar, then gently bend down. They have been removed in the picture above because they were binding. The cables are Domino, and look identical to the ones on my old Aprilia SXV that also broke both cables at the noodle leading out of the throttle tube!

Might be hard to see in the photo, but both cables have broken noodles. I ordered new cables, but installing them requires pulling the airbox (again) pulling the subframe brace (again) pulling the gas tank (again) etc. sad


On a positive note; look how awesome that wiring is looking in comparison to before! 

Woody (Forum Supportum)
Woody (Forum Supportum) MegaDork
3/11/24 3:52 a.m.

In reply to ae86andkp61 (Forum Supporter) :

Is that a Honda N600 on the lift?

Professor_Brap (Forum Supporter)
Professor_Brap (Forum Supporter) UberDork
3/11/24 10:34 a.m.

Your getting to the last 10% that takes 90% of the time, keep pushing, you got this! 

ae86andkp61 (Forum Supporter)
ae86andkp61 (Forum Supporter) SuperDork
3/12/24 1:13 a.m.

In reply to Woody (Forum Supportum) :

Good eye! Yes, it is my longtime friend and shopmate's N600. Flyweight, mid-engined, RWD, semi-tube-frame, with a Civic drivetrain plus turbo where the back seat used to be. Narrowed Civic double-wishbone front suspension. Originally built a long time ago as a GRM Challenge car, now with upgrades. Ridiculous, stupendous, semi-terrifying, and awesome! Due to an upcoming move, it is for sale, and may go to auction soon. My shopmate is a longtime member here, but isn't very active on the boards at the moment, feel free to PM me for contact info if interested and I can put you in touch. Located in Portland, Oregon.

ae86andkp61 (Forum Supporter)
ae86andkp61 (Forum Supporter) SuperDork
3/12/24 7:51 p.m.

In reply to Professor_Brap (Forum Supporter) :

Thanks for the encouragement! I hope to have it riding soon so I can take advantage of the spring weather. smiley

Professor_Brap (Forum Supporter)
Professor_Brap (Forum Supporter) UberDork
3/13/24 9:02 p.m.

In reply to ae86andkp61 (Forum Supporter) :

I'm finishing up the SV mechanically as we speak. Just in time for spring. 

ae86andkp61 (Forum Supporter)
ae86andkp61 (Forum Supporter) SuperDork
3/16/24 12:14 p.m.

While awaiting Husaberg parts, I got started on the GSXR250. My goals are to have it rolling, stopping, and leak-free in time to move out of the shop by the end of next month. That means cleaning up the mess from the leaky forks and front brake caliper, replacing fork seals, rebuilding both brakes, and replacing the 30+ year old tires (I believe they are original!) 


 

Everything on the front end is coated with fork oil.

ae86andkp61 (Forum Supporter)
ae86andkp61 (Forum Supporter) SuperDork
3/17/24 12:44 a.m.

The rubber part of the wheels on my front stand are brittle and failing for some reason, and one of them shattered into a zillion pieces as I tried to lift the bike. I started playing around with some other slightly smaller diameter solid caster wheels I have, but they are too wide and will need to be turned down, which is a project I don't have time for right now, so I just took the wheels off so I can keep working on the bike.



Turns out it works okay with no wheels if you have a shopmate to help.


 

Ugh, sweaty back-breaking work. The ancient tire that has lost almost all pliability didn't help any!


 

Check out the cracks in the sidewall!

Got the front brakes cleaned up in the solvent tank, and started disassembly.

 

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